Best [Michigan/Region/U.S./Worldwide] Vacation

Title:	Best [Michigan/Region/U.S./Worldwide] Vacation
Subject:	Geography
Grade:	Modifiable for any
Time Frame:	How long will the activity/lesson/project take?
Summary:	Write a SHORT summary of the activity/project/lesson here
Tasks:	Grabber - Slideshow of Michigan landmarks, geography, attractions, etc. The Pure Michigan campaign might work for this -- some clips are better (kid-wise) than others http://michigan.org/Topics/Pure-Michigan-Ads/Default.aspx Or this might be better http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w316aA8ed8 (we could dub in names of MI towns the kids would recognize!) Brainstorm with Inspiration – Think-Pair-Share What makes a good vacation? (from kid perspective, siblings perspective, parents perspective) Teams will peruse a set of Del.icio.us links to 8-10 possible Michigan destinations. http://www.midnr.com/edu/flash/DNRKids/KidsCool.html - state parks http://www.exploringthenorth.com/lights/lights.html - light houses in the UP http://www.miadventure.com/ - amusement park http://www.pa.msu.edu/abrams/Index.html - planetarium @ MSU =O) http://www.aahom.org/for_kids_families/ - children's museum Team Decision on Criteria (top 3-4) Teams choose 3-5 criteria to score the possible destinations Team Research Read/browse information on top sites (each participant can select at least 1, team should select at least 4) Gather information to fill in matrix (based on discussion of what makes a good vacation) Team Decision Making Team decides how to select their vacation destination (what if they all agree, what if there is not complete agreement) Team selects their vacation destination and lists their reasons in bullet form Team Communication Whole-group: Brainstorm how teams might communicate their selection and reasoning using the tools the teams have used for the last 2 days. Teams use tools (which ones?- we talked about using flips, digitals & audio) to describe their vacation, making sure to explain how they made their decision. Teams also create a commercial/advertisement for their locale (video, billboard or radio ads). Reflection In pairs, students “read” other team’s choices and comment on at least 2. Individually – using a forum or blog, students comment on the process and product of their team’s day. (This could be where we introduce the Reflection sheet I made for Engage.
Objectives:	What GLCE's or other objectives does this activity/lesson project meet? Please include at least one !gnite objective here as well (communication with text and non-text resources, collaboration, higher order thinking skills, problem solving, etc.)
Assessment:	How will you assess the students learning? Please identify opportunities for differentiation.
Resources:	National Geographic’s 50 Places of a Lifetime App
Examples:	Links to teacher or student examples.

Discussion:

Use the Embed Widget tool to add a Discussion Area widget. Bump the number to 100. This will take the comments from the discussion tab and add them to the bottom of the page. This will encourage teacher reflection and modification.